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Tip of the Week: Android Pie Tips and Tricks

There are over two billion active devices currently using Android. Most of them that have been purchased in the past year or so have come with, or have been subsequently updated to, Android 9.0 Pie. With the introduction of their newest mobile OS, Google has ensured that their software powers more mobile phones than any other software in the world. Today, we’ll take a look at some handy tips you can use to get the most out of your Android Pie experience.

New Gestures In the newest Android OS, Google has built a new gesture navigation system. It may not be automatically turned on. To turn it on, go to Settings > System > Gestures. Then tap on Swipe on Home Button and press the on-screen toggle switch. You will see an immediate change from the three-icon setup of previous builds to a singular pill-shaped icon.

Navigation isn’t much different than for previous builds. Tap the pill icon to return to the homescreen and long press it to bring up Google Assistant. You can now swipe up twice or long-swipe from the home icon to access your app drawer.

Another change was needed since Android 9.0 Pie removes the dedicated button for recent apps. Now users only need a singular short swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open a new carousel gallery that shows all recently-opened apps. To navigate you can swipe between apps, or use the home icon to swipe fast left and right to move through apps more quickly. If you want to clear the apps, simply swipe up on a specific app window; and, if you want to clear all of your apps, scroll all the way to the left and tap the Clear All button to exit all running apps on the device.

In Android 9.0 Pie, the software tries to predict what you’re likely to need next, and offer up actions. If you find it useful you can drag these suggestions, found at the top of your app drawer onto the screen. Lastly, you can find the shortcuts offered by each app by long-pressing on a specific app icon. This includes opening an app in split-screen mode, a major improvement from Android 8.0 Oreo.

Device Notes One extremely useful feature for heavy smartphone users is one where if you touch your fingerprint scanner (on devices that don’t feature an in-display fingerprint reader), it will keep the screen from going dark.

Most people today use their phones as an alarm clock. Even if you don’t, there are definitely times when using the alarm feature is necessary. In Android 9.0 Pie, when your notification panel is open (swipe down from top) you only need to tap on the clock in the system tray to open your Clock app and manage your alarms.

Do you have an Android phone with 9.0 Pie on it? What new features are your favorites? Leave your thoughts in the comments.